Jarvis - December 2005

Jarvis Family Trip Report Day 1 - Thursday December 8, 2005
Cast of Characters: Jean (me) Chris (DS) and Kay (My mom)

Well, finally after months of careful planning we are finally off to Disney World. Me, Chris and my mom were picked up by the limo at 1:15 PM for a 3:45 flight out of OHare airport. We were expecting 3-5 inchs of snow so we were concerned about being delayed. We got to the airport, got through security pretty quickly and settled in for our flight. Chris got McDonalds and we watched the planes being de-iced. We boarded on time and it looked pretty good for an on time take off. I fell asleep right after we got on the plane and woke up an hour later to see that we were still sitting in the same spot! Our plane ended up being delay for 3 1/2 hours and we did not get into Orlando until around 11:15 or 11:30. We were set up for Magical Express but wanted to get our luggage and get it on the bus ourselves since it was so late. We got to the Pop Century hotel, checked in and got up to our room about Midnight. We were in the 50's section, room 2339 facing the lake. By the time we got unpacked and in bed it was around 1:30 in the morning. We were dead tired, but we were in Disney!

Friday December 9 2006: Weather High 77, low 57. Mostly cloudly with showers on and off.

After the delay the night before, we actually were up and out of bed at 7am. We had breakfast at the hotel and headed off to the Magic Kingdom. We tried to wake up Tink but she was already awake so we headed into Fantasyland for our first ride of the trip: Dumbo. Grandma and Chris rode while I snapped some pictures. Then we went on the Pooh ride, then lined up to meet Ariel in her Grotto. We only had about a 15 minute wait so that was not too bad.

The crowds today were not bad at all. As we were walking towards Toon Town we noticed a line to meet Donald Duck by his tree lot. He was getting ready to go on a break so I waited in line while Chris rode on the Mad Hatters Tea Party. Donald had a quick break and by the time Chris got off the ride he was on his way back. There was one family in line in front of us so I got our one of our treat bags and Chris' autograph book.

I make one of the special autograph books that was featured on the MFL a couple of months ago for Chris with a picture of the character and their names printed on it which worked out wonderfully! We got a ton of extra character interaction because of it and the characters were really excited seeing thier pictures on the book. We also make treat bags for some of Chris's favorite characters which had one of the MFL CM appreciation cards, a mini bag of M&M's, a mini bag of skittles, mini hersheys and a tootsie pop. They LOVED getting extra treats and Chris really got a lot of extra hugs and kisses from the characters.

We headed into Toon Town and went straight for the character lines. In the first line, we met Rabbit, Eeyore, Pooh and Tigger. Then we met Minnie, Pluto and Goofy and then went through to the Judges tent to meet Mickey. We got autographs and pics with all of them and just as we exited the judges tent, there were loads of characters doing a meet and greet. We were able to get autographs and pictres with Geppetto, Max, Governor Ratcliffe, Smee, Sherriff of Nottingham, Darkwing Duck, Little John, Friar Tuck, Perla and Susie and Launchpad McQuack. Chris rode Goody's Barnstormer and then we headed off to lunch.

On the way to Pinocchio's Village Haus, we ran into the Queen of Hearts and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. We got autographs and pics with all 3 and then finally had lunch. This was a new restaurant for us and we found the food to be pretty good. We wanted a table by the windows to get a glimpse of Its a Small World but the place was packed and we were lucky to get a table at all.

After lunch we saw Mickey Phillharmagic and rode Snow White, Its a Small World and Haunted Mansion. We got off of HM just in time to tee the Character Parade. It was raining so they did not have the Share a dream come true parade. The characters were great though and we had umbrellas so we got right up in front and didn't get wet.

We saw the hall of presidents and then Chris got a toy gun in the shoppe just outside of the ride. We tried to shop in the Olde Christmas shoppe but the place was mobbed so we headed into Frontierland. We met Woody and Jessie and then went on Big Thunder Mountain twice and Splash Mountain once. We made our way into Adventureland and rode Pirates of the Caribbean and the Jungle Cruise.

At this point the MK was going to close in about 15 minutes so we started to head towards the front and ran into Captain Hook and Smee. Again more pics and autographs and headed out of the park.

We took the boat to the Grand Floridian to see the giant gingerbread house. We had never seen this before so this was a special treat. You just can't believe the size of the house and the details are splendid. Chris found lots of the hidden Mickeys and then we bought some gingerbread cookies from the store inside of the house. I was very bummed that they were out of the gingerbread houses. I wanted to bring one home for Christmas this year after I saw the Christmas program on the Food Network. There was a photo pass photographer taking family pictures in front of the giant Christmas tree so we got about 6 of those. We did a bit of shopping in the gift shop and got some great gingerbread man candles. I got some really beautiful postcards for scrapbooking and then we ran into the Disney vacation club table. I gotta admit, I just wanted the stickers for scrapbooking but the gentleman that was doing the pitch was super nice. His name was John Allen and after taking down our info and telling us about the club we were pretty interested. We are still concidering it. He gave us a stack of stickers and we headed upstairs for get some more pics of the tree and house. We hopped on the Monorail back to the MK and got a bus back to the hotel. We got dinner there and were in bed by 10pm.

Some of the things on this trip that were firsts for us: We never met Max, Govorner Ratcliffe, Smee, Sherriff of Nottingham, Darkwing Duck, Launchpad McQuack, Queen of Hearts, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, or Captain Hook. We never ate at Pinocchio's Village Haus and we never saw the character parade that they do in place of the regular parade. We have also never been to the Grand Floridian and we have never seen the gingerbread house. This was our 4th trip to Disney and it was great having so many "firsts" on day 1.

view photos: Jarvis Photos (on Snapfish). If you have any problems viewing photos please email me off line.

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